So my understanding of the economics literature on income and subjective well-being is that currently we think that:
Relative income has a large effect on subjective well-being
Absolute income has a smaller effect on subjective well-being but the effect is still there
Relevant abstract: https://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?q=income+and+subjective+well-being&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart#d=gs_qabs&t=1662383007403&u=%23p%3DXTFeCIDXcGcJ
So my understanding of the economics literature on income and subjective well-being is that currently we think that:
Relative income has a large effect on subjective well-being
Absolute income has a smaller effect on subjective well-being but the effect is still there
Relevant abstract: https://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?q=income+and+subjective+well-being&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart#d=gs_qabs&t=1662383007403&u=%23p%3DXTFeCIDXcGcJ